The king and I

The king and I

Wednesday 10 May 2006 22.16 EDT
First published on Wednesday 10 May 2006 22.16 EDT

←A recent article in the New Yorker shed some light on the president of FIDE: on the absurd side, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov claims to have been abducted by aliens, put in a yellow suit and shown around the command centre of their spaceship. Apparently the ETs treated him with great civility. Regrettably, we did not discover whether they were interested in chess.

Somewhat less amusing is Kirsan's attitude towards democracy: one of his first acts as president of Kalmykia was to abolish its parliament. I might add that he (unsuccessfully) tried to impose a $1m charge on any candidate opposing him in the FIDE election.

Even less amusing is his unfortunate choice of colleagues: two of his former aides are currently serving prison sentences for the 1998 murder of Larisa Yudina - a journalist for the only opposition newspaper in Kalmykia. No evidence was found linking Kirsan to the murder. Unfortunately for chess, corporate sponsors tend to err on the side of caution. Anything with a whiff of scandal they tend to shun, which is perhaps why they have been almost entirely absent from FIDE events during the 11 years of Kirsan's reign.

In a normal sporting body, it is improbable that a candidate with such obvious deficiencies would be re-elected. Alas, chess is not a normal sport. The FIG Factor (Fear, Ignorance and Greed) is disproportionately large. The June presidential election result is therefore likely to be very close.

Fortunately, a growing number of federations are coming to realise that change is essential if chess is to regain its credibility. After a visit to Hong Kong last week, Kirsan's challenger, Bessel Kok, and his Right Move team travelled on to Jakarta, where the Indonesian Chess Federation announced its support for the visiting ticket.

Chess is popular in Indonesia. I met its most famous GM, Utut Adianto, at the 1980 World Junior Championship. Like most of us, his girth has expanded somewhat in the intervening years, but he remains as witty and charming as ever. His most successful period came in the late 1990s when he crossed the magical 2600 Elo barrier.

Koshy, Varugeese (2410) - Adianto, Utut (2610), Sakthi, India, 19961.c4 e5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 Nc6 4.Nc3 Bc5 5.e3 0-0 6.Nge2 d5!? (It makes more sense to play this tactical thrust on the previous move, but I suspect he may have misremembered the theory.) 7.cxd5 Nb4 8.0-0 Bg4!? (Very aggressively gambiting a pawn. Recapturing the pan on d5 was safer.) 9.e4 c6 10.h3 Bxe2 11.Qxe2 Nc2 12.Rb1 cxd5 13.exd5 Nd4 14.Qd1 (It was possible to capture on e5, but doubtless Koshy did not like the look of Re8.) Nd7 15.b4 Bb6 16.Na4 f5! (Black is working hard to generate an attack.) 17.Bb2 f4 18.Bxd4? (Barely comprehensible. The wiser choice would have been to preface this with capturing on b6.) Bxd4 (Now the White knight on a4 is left stranded on the rim) 19.Kh2 e4! (Another inspirational sacrifice to clear the e5 square) 20.Bxe4 Ne5 21.Qh5 (With a crude threat of mate) g6 22.Qh4 Qd6 (The situation remains highly unclear.) 23.Nc5 DIAGRAM Bxf2!! (A brilliant tactical blow that must have come as a shock to the Indian IM.) 24.Rxf2 fxg3+ 25.Qxg3 Rxf2+ White resigns. Obviously, if 26.Qxf2 Ng4+ wins queen and game. But it was still possible to play 26. Kh1, after which Black clearly holds the upper hand, but the game is by no means lost.